There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures and options. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

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Futures Trading News – CME Group Inc. (CME), the world’s largest futures exchange, will buy the Kansas City Board of Trade for $126 million in cash to add a wheat contract to its products.

CME Group’s Chicago Board of Trade lists futures on soft- red winter wheat that are a lower-quality grain used in animal feed and some cookies and cakes compared with Kansas City’s hard red winter wheat, which is used to make bread and other food products. Hard red winter varieties will account for 44 percent of U.S. wheat production this year, government data show. Futures and options on the grain are the only contracts listed at the Kansas City exchange.

Dow Jones Futures – Stock futures fell as concerns over whether Greece will be able to receive bailout funds prompted a pullback following the recent string a gains.

About 45 minutes before the start of regular trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 103 points, or 0.8%, to 12739. The Dow rose 7 points, or 0.1%, on Thursday for a third-straight gain, and the highest close since May 19, 2008.

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index futures lost 13 points, or 1%, to 1335 and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 21 points, or 0.8%, to 2540. Changes in stock futures do not always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell.

The S&P 500 closed Thursday at the highest levels since July 7, 2011, and the Nasdaq 100 ended at an 11-year high.

European markets were broadly lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 1.1%. Euro-zone finance ministers didn’t approve a second bailout that Greece needs to stay afloat, saying Greece’s parliament must first approve the new austerity measures before they will sign off on the loan deal.

Meanwhile, some major unions in Greece protested the austerity measures that the country’s political leaders had agreed on by launching a 48-hour strike.

Asian bourses were also mostly lower on concerns over Greece, with the Nikkei Stock Average losing 0.6%. China’s Shanghai Composite bucked the trend by rising 0.1% after data showing the country’s trade surplus widened more than expected in January.

Futures Trading – The world’s first global black pepper futures contract will go live on February 10, with its launch by the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), the first trans-Asian multi-product commodity and currency derivatives exchange.

According to exchange sources, this would be “SMX’s first agricultural commodities futures contract, aimed at creating a global benchmark for a commodity predominantly produced and exported from the Asia-Pacific region to the West.”

Vietnam is the largest producer and exporter of black pepper, with 33 per cent and 43 per cent global share respectively, and thus features as the basis delivery centre of the SMX futures contract. The basis grade is origin-neutral 550 g/l black pepper, considering Indonesia, Malaysia and India are also major exporters of the commodity.

So far, India was the only country that conducted futures trading in pepper at the national level exchange through the electronic media, that could be accessed and viewed all over the world. However, from Friday, Singapore’s international exchange would trade pepper to be delivered out of Vietnam bonded warehouses, which means the activity on that exchange would be restricted to Vietnamese pepper alone.

Vietnam has large quantities of pepper — more than 1.25 lakh tonnes — and the bulk of its exports of late have been for 500 g/l faq quality, ever since pepper prices have risen in recent times. There are certain restrictions/controls on the import of such pepper into the US in line with the US/FDA standard and, therefore, it is observed that except for the US, all the other importing countries import the 500 g/l faq grade pepper because of its competitive price in the current high-priced market, the trade here claimed.

Futures Trading – Investments in commodities are expanding at the quickest pace in six years on signs of rising economic growth, even as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warn that some prices have rallied too fast.

The number of futures contracts on 24 commodities from oil to copper rose 9.3 percent last month, the most since January 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Speculators are the most bullish since November, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Gold and silver had the best start to a year since 1983, orange juice posted its biggest rally in more than three decades, the LMEX gauge of six industrial metals rose the most since 2006, and cattle futures advanced to a record.

Raw materials are rebounding from the first annual drop in three years on growing signs the world will skirt another recession and reports that manufacturing is expanding from China to India to the U.S. Investors are betting record-low U.S. interest rates and China’s efforts to shore up growth will bolster demand. The optimism is being tempered by Europe’s widening debt crisis, with the International Monetary Fund warning it could derail the global economy.

“The economic news has been good, and people were underinvested, and that’s a recipe for markets to rise,” said Jess Gaspar, a managing director of Commonfund Asset Management in Wilton, Connecticut, which oversees $25 billion of assets. “If the economy continues strong and central banks continue with monetary easing, then that would be very bullish for risky assets and for commodities in particular.”